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Finches and Bamboo

Emperor Huizong, early 12th century. China, Northern Song dynasty.

You are here

Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

Two small finches perched among pale bamboo leaves and a bare branch on silk, with red seals and inscriptions at the edges.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

Huizong was emperor of China, and in the history books he is better remembered as an artist than as a ruler. He ran a painting academy at his court and took a close interest in how real birds and plants looked. In this short handscroll, two small birds perch among bamboo and a bare branch. One looks down and the other looks back over its shoulder. The feathers are built up in fine strokes of ink and color on silk, and the bamboo leaves are pale and precise. The painting is small and almost empty, and the two birds seem to have stopped for only a second. Around them, red collectors’ seals record the long life of the scroll.

Look closely

  1. Compare the two birds. Which one seems about to fly?
  2. Look at a single bamboo leaf. How many strokes made it?
  3. Notice how much of the silk is left empty.

While you sit

Two birds, a little bamboo, a great deal of quiet. Stay until one of them would have flown.

Your seat in the galleries: a light ash bench with legs shaped like jointed bamboo, cushioned in sage green.

About the work

Title
Finches and Bamboo
Artist
Emperor Huizong
Date
early 12th century
From
China, Northern Song dynasty
Medium
Handscroll; ink and color on silk
Size
Image: 13 1/4 × 21 13/16 in. (33.7 × 55.4 cm)
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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